World of Ideas and Politics
Volume 7/2007

Table of contents:
Studies and analysis:

• Tadeusz Godlewski: Presidential elections in France in 2007
• Mirosław Kruszyński: Self-government electoral campaign in 2006 in Konin and Konin Poviat
• Nartsis Shukuralieva: Constitutional instability as an instrument of power stabilisation. The case of Kyrgyzstan
• Adam Gwiazda: The declining state
• Ewa Chmara: Reception of values in international environment as a determinant of transformation in society's consciouness in global perspective
• Filip Pierzchalski: The casual principle and coefficient subject in defining the political life
• Aleksandra Murzańska: Thus Spoke Nietzsche
• Anna Grzesik-Robak: Polish liberal parties towards Poland's integration with European Communities / the European Union
• Krystyna Maruszczak: From real socialism to capitalism. The idea of political change by Mirosław Dzielski
• Joanna Taczkowska: Freedom of getting and spreading information on the Internet versus execution of the legal obligation of statements authorisation
• Radosław Sajna: Gran Diario de Mexico 'El Universal' y su postura tras las elecciones mexicanas del 2006
  

Book reviews:

• Michał Kosman, Francis Fukuyama: Ameryka na rozdrożu: demokracja, władza i dziedzictwo neokonserwatyzmu (przekład Roman Staniecki).
• Artur Lipiński, José Casanova: Religie publiczne w nowoczesnym świecie
• Artur Laska, David Ost: Klęska "Solidarności". Gniew i polityka w postkomunistycznej Europie
• Janusz Golinowski, Miroslaw Karwat: O demagogii
• Maria Szatlach, Christine Ockrent (red.): Czarna księga kobiet
• Izabela Zielińska: Informacja naukowa
• Małgorzata Cieślik: Informacja naukowa

 

Tadeusz Godlewski
Presidential elections in France in 2007
The article presents the preliminary phase of party preelection of candidates and the normative requirements they had to meet in order to find themselves on the official list of candidates announced by the Constitutional Council. Then, the official electoral campaign started. The author presents it in relation especially to such program issues as projects for institutional reforms of the Fifth Republic, economic issues, unemployment, and immigration. The main attention is directed at the proposals of the three most important candidates (altogether there were 12 candidates).
In the further part, the text refers to the results of the first and second rounds and the campaign between these votings. The election results show that the traditional division - the left versus the right - has been maintained. Of particular importance to the final results was the flow of the electorate from candidates who finished their run for the presidency in the first round.

Mirosław Kruszyński:

Self­government electoral campaign in 2006 in Konin and Konin Poviat
The article presents the course and character of the political electoral rivalry conducted during the self­government campaign in 2006 in Konin town and Konin Poviat. The starting point for the analysis and the electoral fight waged by the campaign participants was the domination of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) in wielding power in the town since 1992. It focused on the following program issues: construction investments in the town and the region, and from the side of the opposition - the fight for decommunization of the town office. Observers of the local political stage agreed that the results of the discussed self­government elections depended on the new electoral regulations based on blocking electoral registers. In Konin, three election blocs were established, and 5 people ran for mayor.
The further part of the text presents the election results, in which the result of achieved electoral attendance proved to be particularly important as it attested to the strengthening of democratic standards and customs. The winner of the self­government elections in Konin was the Civic Platform (PO), whereas further fight for mayor was waged by a politician of SLD and a woman candidate from PO. However, the negative campaign conducted by the latter before the second round of the elections was not accepted by Konin residents, who opted for keeping the left­wing government in the town.

Nartsiss Shukuralieva:

Constitutional instability as an instrument of power stabilisation. The case of Kyrgyzstan
The article analyses the issues connected with the creation and functioning of the constitution in post-communist Kyrgyzstan. Ostentatious law and order, repeatedly declared devotion to the principle of 'superiority of the constitution' and ritual references to the constitution concealed legal manipulations and procedures violating the principles, the objective of which was to strengthen the presidential power centre. The structure of the article is supported on the dichotomy: stability - destabilization. In the Kyrgyz context, legal instability was closely interrelated with stabilization of the dominant presidential power. The text specifies the factors responsible for the legal destabilization of the political system, reflected in multiplication of law, lack of hierarchy of legal acts, multiple changes of the constitution frequently made with violation of the principles. Especially the significance of the president's ambition aiming at unlimited power is exhibited. This article shows the dynamics of the law creation process shaped by tensions between the president and the parliament. It also indicates other factors connected with the political culture, the lack of democratic political elites, the low legal culture level, and the impingement of the Soviet heritage.

Adam Gwiazda:

The declining state
The contemporary state has evolved from the ancient Greek Polic and Roman civitas through the latter transformations of feudal state. At present due to the progressing globalization the state has been weakened and has been losing some of its vital functions and prerogatives. Some of those functions have been taken over by the transnational corporations and the international organizations such as the World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund. The decline of the contemporary state is also reflected in its inability to fulfill the aspirations of its citizens and to defend effectively the interests of the nation.There are various definitions and concepts of the desired role of the state. All of them shape a highly idealistic picture of the state which is incompatible with the existing reality.There also are some controversies over the tasks,which the shate should perform vis a vis the market as well as to what extent the state power should be decentralized or centralized.There are also discussions whether the state should be weak or strong. The fact is that an increasing number of the contemporary states are on the brink of bankruptcy. This paper tries to explain the reasons why some states are declining dechining and what should be done in order to stop that decline.

Ewa Chmara:

Reception of values in international environment as a determinant of transformation in society's consciouness in global perspective
Dynamism and complexity of international environment is reflected in Incessant rotation of values. Experience and knowledge from disaster of Two Enormous World Wars, grounded in complicated structure of contemporary world - democratic values, which have dominated circle of principles. The main role in this process was plaid by United Nations, that became promoter of peace and regard for otherness.
The author analyze how international community had been changed. The awareness of circulation of values determines the way of human thinking and proclaimed such important factors in global system. Disproportions in development in different parts of the World are escalated by increasing economic cooperation between international actors, and Hi­tech achievements. Singular nation cannot solve this issue by itself. Challenges of globalization like: poverty and hunger, pollution, or gender unequal, demand transnational activity. Most of those disadvantages has argued how necessary global social movements are to neutralize global disproportions. The author notices that social activities in global assessment created new attitude for global citizens. Members of this new global community identify world as a common place. That project has been creating and in authors opinion belongs to one of the most important challenge in the future.

Filip Pierzchalski:

The casual principle and coefficient subject in defining the political life
The article undertakes the analysis of problem while explaining the discrepancy among the causal principle [theoretical concept understood as hermetic relation between cause and result, according to thesis: definite cause leads always (and only) to definite result] and coefficient subject [there are different types of political subjects (individual and collective participants of political life) as well as relatively stable, gradiative property subject, that is subjectivity. Additionally, coefficient subject is designed to show the changes and processes in social structure]. In this case in the article the following issues are analysed:

• the problem with defining the cause which determines the coefficient subject,
• the problem with characterising the causes determining the coefficient subject,
• the problem with indetermination in political life (especially political phenomenon), that is with practical negation of the causal principle.

 The consequence of all these issues is the thesis that explanations of the facts and processes must not be carried out by using firm directives, but inversely - by using two­way analysis (coincidence of subjective and objective factors, in which the practical indetermination is written).

Aleksandra Murzańska:

Thus Spoke Nietzsche
The article is an attempt at describing the vision of rationality in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. The task undertaken by the author is to answer the question whether the philosopher's perception of the world can be used when explaining contemporary problems. The received answer turns out to be ambiguous since Nietzsche's philosophy does not constitute a coherent philosophical system. According to him, the so-called 'real philosophy' consists in specifying the limits of human intellect. In this view, the human being gradually becomes at the same time a fantastic and the sickest animal that has to believe and to know why it exists. A subjective explanation of this problem is equivalent to the human 'awareness of power'.
The further part of the article presents more precisely Nietzsche's philosophy of man. The author analyses also the issue of interpretation of disrelish as a source of suffering and religion that is accepted uncritically by mindless people. Additionally, she presents Nietzsche's criticism of science, based on the conviction that its main objective is to prove the thesis that the human being deserves contempt only.

Anetta Grzesik-Robak:

Polish liberal parties towards Poland's integration with European Communities / the European Union
The article brings up the issue of the attitude of the Polish liberal community towards integration with the European structures. Its objective is to show the attitudes, opinions and argumentation of the liberal pro-integrative option after the year 1989. In this regard, the standpoints of the following parties are analysed: Citizens' Movement for Democratic Action (ROAD), Democratic Union (UD), Liberal-Democratic Congress (KLD), Freedom Union (UW) and Civic Platform (PO).
In further parts of the article, the author shows that to liberal parties Western Europe constituted a synonym of freedom, democracy, prosperity and progress. One can get an impression that this fascination was so strong that it was trusted without any critical reflections. As a result, the liberals contributed to the guiding of Poland's development, accepting the pro-western option that was maintained and consistently realised by all successive governments.

Krystyna Maruszczak:

From real socialism to capitalism. The idea of political change by Mirosław Dzielski
The author of the article analyses the idea of political change, focusing on the question whether this change in Poland after the year 1989 was carried out by way of revolution or reforms. he considerations characterise mainly the idea of Mirosław Dzielski and his community, as well as relations with their opponents. Several elements of the above-named theory are brought out in the text. Firstly, the necessity of making comprehensive social changes for the success of the planned change. Secondly, reality diagnosis is necessary. Thirdly, planning of the form of political change, and finally, creation of the project for 'the system of freedom'.
The article shows the uniqueness of Dzielski's opinions as a liberal. The author puts special emphasis on the fact that according to him, the reforms program should be directed not at communists but communism. What's more, he perceived that in the Polish conditions there was a collision between freedom and democracy, whereas in his opinion the primacy should go the former.

Joanna Taczkowska:

Freedom of getting and spreading information on the Internet versus execution of the legal obligation of statements authorisation
The author is interested in the issue of responsibility for quoting other people's statements in materials spread on the Internet. The author analyses the circumstances connected with the use of private statements on the websites of public communicators and on so-called private websites. The author pays attention to the change in the range of the idea of authorisation in relation to publication on the Internet. At the same time, she indicates the fact of obliteration of changes between the status of a communicator and a recipient of information. The commonness and easiness of publishing and the possibility of making use of various codes and forms of presentation on the Internet make it difficult to specify the group of entities responsible for spreading other people's statements. However, application of these criteria makes it possible to specify the range and to mark out the limits of legal responsibility borne by them.

Radosław Sajna:

Wielki Dziennik Meksyku "El Universal" i jego postawa po wyborach meksykańskich w 2006 r.
2 lipca 2006 r. odbyły się w Meksyku wybory prezydenckie i parlamentarne. Po sześciu latach rządów Vicentego Foxa z prawicowej Partii Akcji Narodowej (Partido Acción Nacional, PAN) Meksykanie wybrać mieli nowego prezydenta (konstytucja w tym kraju nie dopuszcza reelekcji), którego znaczenie w systemie politycznym dawnego kraju Azteków jest podobne jak w przypadku Stanów Zjednoczonych. Dlatego też wybory do dwuizbowego meksykańskiego parlamentu odbywały się nieco w cieniu starcia pomiędzy dwoma najpoważniejszymi kandydatami do prezydentury. Jako że prawo meksykańskie nie przewiduje drugiej tury wyborów, wyniki z pierwszej tury wyłonić miały nową głowę państwa. Felipe Calderón Hinojosa (PAN) oraz Andrés Manuel López Obrador (lewicowa Partia Rewolucji Demokratycznej, Partido Revolucionario Democrático, PRD) praktycznie osiągnęli remis - zdobyli po ok. 36 proc. głosów, przy czym kandydat prawicy wyprzedził rywala, wbrew wcześniejszym sondażom, o nieco ponad pół procenta głosów. Przy tak nikłej przewadze zrozumiałym jest, że w Meksyku pojawiły się symptomy kryzysu politycznego, zagrażającego meksykańskiej demokracji, która pierwszego prezydenta wybranego w prawdziwie wolnych wyborach dała Meksykanom dopiero w 2000 r.